Legislation date for legal marijuana remains hazy

TORONTO With only three weeks to go until the Senate votes on Canada’s Cannabis Act, the actual date of legalization for adult recreational use remains up in the air, according to the federal government’s top marijuana official.

“The senate has agreed to have their vote on June 7. What happens after June 7 is unknown,” said Eric Costen, the director of the federal government’s Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Branch.

The goal remains to pass the bill sometime in the summer, said Costen, speaking at a Lift & Co cannabis industry conference in Toronto on Thursday. But there are multiple moving parts, which make determining exact dates a challenge. “Should the Senate decide to propose amendments, then the bill goes back to the House for a vote, and then you end up in a situation of the bill being approved with amendments in the House, or if it’s not, it goes back to the Senate,” said Costen.

Once the bill does pass, there will be transition period “of two to three months” before legal sales actually begin, said Costen. Even then, legalization should be thought of as a process, he said.

“The full establishment of the supply chain, the full establishment of the retail environment ... the full array of products that will be available for sale, all of these things will evolve and emerge over time.”

At least one part of the timeline, however, is set in stone: edibles and cannabis-infused concentrates will become legal within a year of Bill C-45 becoming law.

The Liberal government has, over the past several months, remained adamant that C-45 will pass before the fall.

Financial Post